San Clemente’s City Council chose Friday, Sept. 25, not to extend for a second night a curfew first issued Thursday following a day of protesting over the death of a Black man earlier in the week after he was shot by an Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy.
The 9 p.m. curfew was put into effect on Thursday after about 80 people protested along South El Camino Real and in front of the Hotel Miramar where the Wednesday, Sept. 23, shooting occurred in the early afternoon. At that time, the majority of the City Council worried that additional protests could be disruptive and endanger local merchants and residents.
On Friday, Interim City Manager Erik Sund told the council that based on his understanding and communication with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department there appeared to be no need to extend the curfew another night.
Instead, the council appointed Councilman Chris Hamm to have the authority to call for an emergency curfew should the need arise over the next few days. If that happens, the council would call an emergency meeting to make further decisions.
Officials with the Sheriff’s Department reiterated again on Friday that an independent investigation by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office will bear out more details on what led up to the shooting, including why the two deputies initially approached Kurt Andras Reinhold, 42.
Two deputies with a homeless outreach team in San Clemente encountered Reinhold around 1:15 p.m. Wednesday near the Hotel Miramar. Reinhold had arrived in the San Clemente area some 30 days prior, and members of the outreach team had tried on previous occasions “to establish a dialogue” with him to offer homeless services, Sheriff Don Barnes said during a press conference on Thursday. San Clemente contracts with the Sheriff’s Department for its police services.
Barnes said at the press conference he could not comment on why the deputies contacted Reinhold that day, or on what led to the physical altercation. The sheriff did not identify the deputies, but said they were both trained in crisis intervention and de-escalation techniques.
“The deputies had a reason, we don’t know what that was,” Carrie Braun, spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Department, said again on Friday.
In a cellphone video aired by NBC Los Angeles and posted by Local Story TV on Facebook, the two sheriff’s deputies are seen approaching Reinhold while in the middle of the street. In places it is difficult to hear exactly what is said because the audio is muffled or there is background noise.
Reinhold can be heard on the video asking, “Why you stopping me?” One deputy answers, “Cause you were jaywalking right there” and points to the left side of the screen.
Reinhold then appears to describe his path, telling them he was coming from the nearby liquor store.
As the deputies approach him, he repeatedly yells, “Stop touching me” and “Why are you touching me?”
“Go sit down,” one of the deputies can be heard telling him. Reinhold doesn’t and attempts to walk past the deputies. After several tries to get around the deputies, one deputy reaches around Reinhold, appearing to try to restrain him. The other deputy comes in to help. Both wrestle him to the ground near the sidewalk in front of the hotel.
Reinhold continues to move around as the deputies try to leverage their weight to restrain him. Meanwhile, cars drive by and obscure the video’s view, which appears to be shot from across the street.
Then it sounds as though a deputy yells that Reinhold has his gun.
Seconds later, two shots go off, with the person recording the video saying, “Oh, My God.”
In addition to that video, there are others. Sheriff Barnes said a security camera from the Hotel Miramar captured at least part of the altercation. The Sheriff’s Department did not release the video, but put out a grainy screenshot that Barnes described as showing Reinhold reaching for a deputy’s gun.
“It was a struggle that went on for some time,” Barnes said.
One deputy fired twice at Reinhold, the sheriff has confirmed.
Barnes on Thursday declined to comment on whether the deputies had a lawful reason to detain Reinhold, noting that the deputies and some witnesses had yet to be interviewed. He said then that he was not aware of any operations on Wednesday targeting jaywalking in San Clemente.
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